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Why the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Controversies? ‘People Like To Talk A Lot’

A full house of almost 500 attendees came to hear a discussion about the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), which hosted prize shortlistees Inaam Kachachi, Ahmed Mourad and winner Ahmed Saadawi at the seventh Emirates Airline Festival of Literature:

By Mohga Hassib

Audience members waiting to get into the event. Photo credit: Mohga Hassib.

The session took place under the title “The IPAF Panel: Rewarding Wonders” and was moderated by Yasir Suleiman, Director of the Centre of Islamic Studies and fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, also the chair and trustee of the IPAF board. Invited speakers were Iraqi novelist Ahmed Sadaawi, winner of the 2014 IPAF for his novel Frankenstein in Baghdad; Inaam Kachachi, Iraqi novelist and journalist whose novels Tashari and The American Granddaughter were shortlisted in 2014 and 2009, respectively; and Egyptian Ahmed Mourad, whose third novel The Blue Elephant was also shortlisted in 2014.